Police in Germany have launched a legal investigation into Roger Waters, the co-founder of Pink Floyd, after he appeared wearing a fancy dress resembling a Nazi uniform throughout two live shows in Berlin final week.
Waters was sporting the costume whereas acting from Pink Floyd’s 1979 idea album “The Wall,” through which the album’s protagonist hallucinates that he’s a fascist dictator. The satirical routine has been part of Waters’ solo exhibits for no less than 30 years, together with a well-known stay efficiency of the album in Berlin in 1990. This week seems to be the primary time the German authorities has launched a legal investigation following his efficiency, nevertheless.
Berlin police spokeswoman Jennifer Bähle confirmed to CNN Friday that Waters is being investigated for suspected incitement throughout two live shows within the metropolis final week, on Could 17 and 18. ”Now we have obtained info from the general public together with photos and movies which in accordance with the exterior look are appropriate for fulfilling the offence of incitement to hatred,” she mentioned.
”The State Safety Division on the Berlin State Felony Police Workplace has initiated a legal investigation process concerning the suspicion of incitement of the folks (140 Paragraph 4 of the German legal Code),” an announcement by Berlin police despatched to CNN reads.
”The context of the clothes worn is deemed able to approving, glorifying or justifying the violent and arbitrary rule of the Nazi regime in a fashion that violates the dignity of the victims and thereby disrupts public peace,” the assertion went on to say.
”After the conclusion of the investigation, the case will likely be forwarded to the Berlin Public Prosecutor’s Workplace for authorized evaluation,” the police assertion ended.
In an announcement posted to Fb dated Could 20, Waters criticized the German Bundestag’s 2019 vote to designate the pro-Palestinian “Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions” (BDS) motion as antisemitic. Waters has been a frequent proponent of the BDS motion, and a vocal critic of the Israeli state’s therapy of Palestinian folks.
A video posted and shared on social media from Waters’ efficiency on the Mercedes-Benz Enviornment final week exhibits the musician in a fancy dress with a purple armband emblazoned with two crossed hammers – a picture from Pink Floyd’s album “The Wall” that has been appropriated by racist skinhead teams, in accordance with the Anti-Defamation League. The video exhibits Waters pretending to shoot into the group with a prop machine gun. Based on the Berlin police, this depiction is more likely to glorify the rule of the Nationwide Socialists.
The performances in Germany had been the topic of profound controversy earlier than Waters arrived. He has persistently denied that he’s antisemitic. In his Could 20 assertion, the singer mentioned he visited the graves of anti-Nazi activists Sophie and Hans Scholl whereas on tour in Munich final week.
Waters is scheduled to carry out in Frankfurt on Sunday.
Metropolis authorities in Frankfurt demanded that the venue cancel his live performance there, however in accordance with a report in The Guardian, a German court docket dominated in April that whereas his efficiency makes use of “symbolism manifestly primarily based on that of the Nationwide Socialist regime,” the musician’s work “didn’t glorify or relativize the crimes of the Nazis or establish with Nazi racist ideology.”
Frankfurt’s Jewish group has organized a protest in opposition to his upcoming efficiency. ”On this present day, the live performance by the musician Roger Waters recognized for his anti-Semitic stage exhibits and statements, will happen. We don’t need to stand by idly when a widely known anti-Semite and conspiracy theorist is given a stage in Frankfurt, ” the Jewish group mentioned in an announcement on Instagram.
Based on Waters’ present schedule, he’s additionally anticipated to carry out in a collection of live shows within the UK subsequent week, together with in Birmingham, Glasgow, London and Manchester.
In an interview with podcaster Katie Halper posted on-line on Could 6, Waters mentioned: “I will be allowed to do a present as a result of it’s theatre darling. The concept that nobody can gown up in a f**king Nazi uniform ever, to do something, in a theatre or a movie, is ludicrous, clearly.”
His feedback got here shortly after he received a authorized battle to revoke Frankfurt metropolis council’s ban on his upcoming live performance.
“You don’t gown up like him, in a pro-Himmler or pro-Nazi manner,” mentioned Halper. “It’s a scathing critique, you might be enjoying a villainous character.”
“It’s a parody,” Waters replied.
